This invention relates to a clamp for support and connection members such as pins and the like, particularly but not exclusively as used in conveyor belts for supporting the relative guides, for example lateral guides.
With particular but not exclusive reference to conveyor belts, these are known to comprise later al guides formed for example from longitudinal section bars, which are supported by pins mounted in clamps. With these known clamps, the pins are clamped by screw means and can be adjusted by slackening and tightening these latter.
The operations involved in slackening and tightening these screw means in order to position the lateral guides in the desired manner are relatively burdonsome in terms both of time taken and force required, especially considering that in a conveyor belt complex of one and the same production plant there can be some hundreds if not thousands of such clamps.
The main object of the invention is therefore to provide a clamp which eliminates the need to use screw means for locking the clamped piece or component (such as a pin) by using for its tightening the action of elastic means and for its slackening a manual action counteracting that of said elastic means.
Another object of the invention is to provide a clamp in which its tightening is achieved by the action of elastic means and its slackening by a manual counteraction which locks the clamp in the slackened position (in which the required adjustment can be made), from which tightening can be again achieved by releasing the clamp from this position.
A further object of the invention is to provide a clamp in which it is easier and quicker to position the clamped piece or pin and adjust the length of that portion thereof which projects from the clamp.
As there exists, not only in the conveyor belt sector, the need for a cross-type clamp, ie a clamp which clamps two separate members positioned at a right angle, a further object of the invention is to provide a cross-type clamp in which the tightening and slackening procedures of the two preceding objects apply to at least one of these members.